Distinguished Alumni Awards: Cassandra Miller
We are thrilled that Cassandra Miller is the recipient of one of the 2025 Presidents’ Alumni Awards. Born in Victoria, Cassandra received her Bachelor of Music in Composition and Theory from UVic in 2005; her brother, the award-winning graphic designer Emrys Damon Miller, is also a Fine Arts alumni (Visual Arts).
An acclaimed Canadian-British composer who has been living in London, England, since 2018, Cassandra’s composition methods incorporate a unique practice of meditation-based uncontrolled singing to learn about melody and repetition. She uses these vocal exercises together with creative transcription processes to transform pre-existing musical sources (from both within and outside the classical tradition) to magnify their expressive, personal, or fragile qualities.
“Music this uncalculatedly beautiful leaves you almost desperate with gratitude,” wrote Alex Ross of her work in The New Yorker, while The Guardian hailed her “Duet for Cello and Orchestra” as among the top 20 “Best Classical Music Works of the 21st Century.” Over the past year, her works have appeared internationally at the BBC Proms, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and on tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has twice received the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music, Canada’s highest honour for composition, and in 2025 she will be a visiting scholar for three months as lecturer at Stanford University.
Endless possibility
“I originally went to UVic to study my instrument—the harp,” Cassandra recalls. “On the first day of classes I took a composition elective and then realized, ‘Oh gosh, this is what I do now.’ It was life changing.”
She recalls the School of Music as the kind of place where, as far as creativity goes, “anything was possible… You were taught that to be an artist was to be a bit of a weirdo. It was so freeing and so important. I learned about myself… how to be that kind of creative, how to be free and playful by being myself… At the time I just thought that was good education, but afterwards I realized that it was also artistically incredibly unique and important. It was a very special place.”
Over the years, she has been invited as a visiting teacher and lecturer at many institutions including Stanford, Columbia, CalArts, London’s Royal Academy of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, McGill University, the University of Manitoba and the Orkest de Ereprijs Young Composers Meeting. From 2010 to 2013, she held the post of Artistic and General Director of Innovations en concert, Montreal, and from 2018 to 2020, Miller was Associate Head of Composition at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, leading the undergraduate program.
Cassandra Miller with the BBC Philharmonic at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival (BPA/The Guardian)
Collaboration and listening
Cassandra says she finds the art and practice of composing “extremely collaborative. On the surface, it looks like I’m sitting at home staring at my computer, but because I’m writing music for other people to play, even the least collaborative project is extremely collaborative. And then there’s the idea of making space for another person, and it’s a skill that I’m continuously learning. Every opportunity to interact with somebody is an opportunity to learn how to listen better. And the other side of that is listening to oneself and making the space to listen to what’s going on inside and what needs to happen and how to make space.”
What I’ve learned
“I’ve learned how to gather around me the support that I need. This was something I learned late in life… I have pretty strong ADHD, and I need to hire an assistant. I need to hire a personal trainer. I need to have a therapist at all times. I also need to keep my family and friends close, and I always need to live with somebody. There’s a lot of things I need that I’m getting better at asking for and putting into place.”
“A friend of mine used the mantra ‘Try less hard,’ and I took it on… It’s about making that space for listening. Often when you’re trying too hard for something, you’re not making the space to listen to what’s really going on. Often the solution is to change a situation or try something a bit differently. But if you’re already trying hard, trying harder usually isn’t the thing that’s going to make it work.”
Speed round!
Something that brings me joy:
“Bird song… London has parakeets, which are a huge part of the soundscape of the city. They’re an invasive species, but they have this wonderful chatter and they’re very loud at sunrise and sunset. It’s a way to mark the time in the city, and they fly around in these huge flocks and they’re bright green. They’re lovely.”
One food I can’t resist:
“My family makes these traditional Lebanese Christmas cookies. We call them Sticky Fingers because they’re roughly the shape of a finger and they’re dipped in honey, filled with almonds and orange blossom water. And they have little bits of aniseed in the dough.”
Something great I’ve watched recently:
“A movie called The Cassandra Cat. It’s this absurd, surreal movie from the Czech Republic in the early ’60s. I sort of recommend it, but you have to be in the right mood.”
A cool thing about where I live:
“London has so many trees in it that it’s classified as a forest.”
Secret talent:
“I am incredibly patient, and I don’t mind waiting, and it’s very extreme. If a friend is three hours late to meet me, no problem. I just love waiting around.”
A talent I wish I possessed:
“I wish I could dance better. I think it’s an important thing in life. I think life is probably about eating, sleeping, singing and dancing.”
Read more about UVic’s 2025 Alumni Awards here
